Friday, 25 July 2008

Actually, the 14 Mercs are for visiting foreign dignitaries...

Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has clarified that the 14 Mercedes E200 Kompressors purchased by the Terengganu government for RM3.43mil would be used for visiting foreign dignitaries. (read here)

He said that this was the decision he reached with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after speaking with Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said on Thursday.

However, earlier Friday, Ahmad said, "We (Abdullah and Najib) reached a consensus on the matter during the meeting at Putra World Trade Centre (on Thursday). The matter has been solved."

The Terengganu government was criticised recently after it purchased 14 Mercedes E200 Kompressors for RM3.43mil.

Ahmad said both leaders have told him that the matter is solved and should be laid to rest. (Read the Star online PM okays Merc for T’ganu State Governmenthere. Malaysiakini had the same report T’ganu gets PM’s nod for Mercedes, here .

Datuk Ahmad, in the earlier report, was quoted as saying that the Mercedes-Benz saga has ended after he met with the Prime Minister and his deputy, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Thursday.

“The matter has been solved. I can't elaborate further," he said Friday after opening the Seri Kandi's Annual General Meeting at his official residence here.

Asked whether the Mercedes Benz E200 K could be now regarded as official cars for state executive councillors and ex officio, Ahmad quipped ``Make your own presumption. I was told the matter has been solved."

Ahmad described his meeting with both Abdullah and Najib as cordial.

"I explained my rationale for switching the Proton Perdanas to Mercedes-Benz and they have accepted it.

"I told them that the state government has not spent extravagantly and the decision to procure the Mercedes was done after two years of evaluation," he said.

( Two different versions on the outcome of the meeting the trio had. If the PM had said they were for foreign dignitaries how did this bloke get it wrong? Makes one wonders what actually transpired in the meeting. Who has flipped and flopped? Is the State Government getting another fleet for the excos now that their new gleaming new Mercs will be taken away? Have the Perdana V6 been sold off/traded in for the Mercs? Does that mean the Federal Government is buying them (the Merc lah)? This is what happens when bad decisions are made.)

"You must use Perdana. But if you defy us, then you can use the Merc. You will save the Rakyat millions in maintenance costs by spending millions on capital expenditure on Mercs. Enjoy!!"

Soon, all visiting foreign PM's, Presidents and Ambassadors like Bush, Rice, Ruud, Brown etc will first rush to KT to pay their respects to the MB there before heading for its poor second cousin, KL & Putrajaya, so that they can enjoy the comfort of a Merc Kompressor, which they do not have in the boondocks like Washington & London!!

Of course, the matter has been solved, and ther's no need to investigate who defrauded the Govt with false invoices and claims for RM 1 million! That's the true spirit of Bolehland to inculcate in our children and work-force.

It is true that Proton Perdana can be injurous to your pocket if you are unlucky and landed with one with sub-standard gear box. For regular long distance cross-country as done by ADUNs, Perdana is grossly uneconomical. For shorter shuttle in the city as done by KL-based ministers, Perdana is OK. The Perdana Executive is more expensive than normal one, costing around RM180K. With high maintenance cost and less comfort, MB Terengganu made the right choice in switching to entry-level Merc models costing around RM245K each.

It must be remembered that under Federalism, Putrajaya has little say in the choosing the MB, much less the MB's car.

Have a Heart: Save IJN

Israel’s assault on Gaza, by air, sea and now land, has killed (at the time of this writing) more than 600 Palestinians, with more than 2,700 injured. Ten Israelis have been killed, three of them Israeli soldiers killed by friendly fire. Beyond the deaths and injuries, the people of Gaza are suffering a dire humanitarian crisis that is dismissed by the Israeli government. There is, however, Israeli opposition to the military assault. Read here...

Human Rights

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Child Safety

Parents, guardians, and adults who care for children face constant challenges when trying to help keep children safer in today's fast-paced world.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) offers easy-to-use safety resources to help address these challenges.
For decades, children were taught to stay away from "strangers." But this concept is difficult for children to grasp and often the perpetrator is someone the child knows.
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Why Hamas is NOT the issue

Mohammed, age six, marched with determination to his bedroom, put on a record of the Fatah marching song, picked up a wooden toy rifle and marched out to the balcony. He pointed the rifle to the sky where minutes ago, Israeli planes flew over dropping bombs on Palestinian refugee sites. Mohammed told me he wanted to be a pilot so he could fight Israeli warplanes. “But Mohammed, the Palestinians do not have planes.” “I don’t care, I will fight them whatever way I can.”Was a resistance fighter born this minute or was he a “future terrorist”? (Beirut 1973)

How does one explain the horrific fate that has befallen caged Gaza – a land saturated with rubble and body parts – carpet-bombed by air, invaded by ground, attacked by sea? Put to the test of history, Israeli “explanations” fail the credibility test. continue here---------------------------------------------Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignoredWe've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more – providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force. ..Continue here

War on Gaza

Israel's failure to learnBy Nir Rosen (Aljazeera)

When George Bush, the US president, first entered the White House as the commander-in-chief in 2001, Palestinians were being killed in the al-Aqsa intifada.

Eight years later, as Bush prepares to leave office, Israel is carrying out one of the largest massacres in its 60-year occupation of Palestine.

The US, then and now, strongly backs Israel's offensive, justifying it as being, in fact, defensive.To continue read here ...